Nancy Pelosi has been reelected to the office of Speaker of the House, and immediately tried to claim that she was the equal of the President of the United States, which was a bit of an exaggeration. Congressman Brad Sherman of Ventura County California introduced articles of impeachment, brand new representative Rashida Tlaib, who chose Palestinian garb in which to take the oath of office announced to her supporters (to wild cheers) that “We’re gonna go in there and impeach the m—–.” Hank Johnson, who last time round worried that an island might tip over, referred to President Trump as “Hitler,”and said that those who support Trump are “less educated.” Young Ocasio-Cortez announced that to save us all from world-ending climate catastrophe in 5 years to support her Green New Deal, Congress would have to raise taxes on the rich to, oh, 82% or so. Maxine Waters is slated to become chair of the House Financial Services Committee, and is very committed to impeaching the President. Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats immediately introduced a bill to restore voting rights to convicted felons nationwide. Pelosi does want to spend all sorts of money on saving us from global warming.

Democrats want to overhaul campaign finance and ethics rules that would “expand voting rights.” One idea is to allocate a pool of taxpayer money to match small-donor donations 6-1, as a way of encouraging “grassroots campaigning.” This goofy idea would not pass the Senate, but progressives like the idea of empowering the state to allocate money to preferred donors.

Some big cities have already begun handing out tax-funded “democracy vouchers.” In other words, politicians have passed legislation that subsidizes the speech of people who will, for the most part, support them. It’s quite the racket. Pelosi wants to take this corruption national.

Reducing the power of “special interests” in Washington is always a popular issue with voters. The problem, of course, is that every voter considers another group a special interest. Though as a political notion, campaign finance reform remains popular with Americans, specific campaign finance reform legislation is always about inhibiting someone’s speech.

What many Americans don’t seem to accept, particularly partisans, is that not voting or participating in our political process is also a matter of free expression. There’s nothing, after all, in the Constitution about how the state should encourage “grassroots activism.”

Democrats have no interest in working with Republicans to do what is best for the nation, nor in abiding by the Constitution, I forgot to mention that Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN) submitted a bill to change the Constitution by eliminating the Electoral College. Democrats have never grasped the reason why the Founders set it up that way, which interferes with their efforts to control the country.

Democrats’ demand to be in control has outweighed any understanding of the United States of America, our history, what the country is all about, the nature of our citizens – in their ugly, greedy desire to be in control with no interference from anyone. Nancy Pelosi not only announced that she was co-equal to the president (she’s not) but that we are nation of immigrants (we are not. We are a nation of citizens, and a nation of laws.) It’s going to be a difficult time.

Let’s begin with some good news for a cloudy January day. The U.S. economy added 312,000 jobs in December, Economists had predicted nonfarm payrolls would rise by 176,000. November results, initially reported at ( a lower than expected) 155,000 jobs gain was revised upward to 176,000. Average hourly earnings rose by 0.4 percent. The total new manufacturing jobs came to 284,000 for 2018. That’s two-hundred eighty four thousand jobs.

Construction, retail, restaurant all posted job gains. Democrats have been trying to talk the economy down, but it didn’t work.